Tonight is Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and the buzz is palpable. Can the Heat draw on last year’s disappointment as motivation? Is the stage too big and bright for the youth of the Thunder? Which team will get its vaunted transition game going? And if it is a one-possession game in the final minute, will LeBron James again become a shrinking violet or impose his newly indomitable will? We all want to see a competitive series with no shortage of spectacular
There is no basketball game on Friday night, which means you can take some time to read about what’s going on around the league, from LeBron James’ epic performance, David Stern’s thoughts on the draft lottery, Indiana’s next move, and much more. Did you see how many shots LeBron James missed in Game 6? You can see every single one of them in this video. Really, though, was James’ performance on Thursday night the best he has ever put on? Statistically, no.
There was a lot of talk about conspiracy theories this week. Seven years ago, the New Orleans Hornets’ outdated arena was underwater following Hurricane Katrina. They played two seasons in Oklahoma City, then returned to a city whose population had been dissipated and disenfranchised. Already one of the NBA’s smaller markets, they struggled to rebuild a consistent fan base. Their owner put the team up for sale, and the idea of relocation became a very real possibility. So the NBA gave New
NEW YORK — Our best vs. your best, and let’s see who can win the gold medal in men’s basketball at the Olympics. That was the idea that spawned the Dream Team, and now NBA commissioner David Stern sounds as though he wants to change it. Stern on Wednesday endorsed a discussion of limiting the Olympics and the World Cup of Basketball (formerly called the World Championship) to players 23 and under, bowing to pressure from NBA owners who have complained that
csprtContainer(); Question: What’s the difference between the NBA and the outfit formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation? Answer: Beats me. Actually, there’s a huge difference between a game highlighting athletic grace and hand-to-hand combat between players assuming heroic or villainous personas: The WWF doesn’t have a ball. Otherwise, it’s getting too close for comfort for the NBA, even if league officials prefer to pull the strings from New York rather than issuing proclamations in the ring like Vince McMahon. These playoffs look less like a
NEW YORK — The draft lottery is tonight, and here is a primer on everything you need to know as we all wait to find out who will get the right to choose Anthony Davis of Kentucky with the No. 1 overall pick. We’ll do it in the form of Top 10 list, for two reasons: People love Top 10 lists (thank you, David Letterman), and if you really need to know more than 10 things about the lottery, we kindly
The Golden State Warriors have scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. ET where they are expected to announce plans to move the franchise from Oakland to San Francisco later this decade. A press release called it “a major announcement,” with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Warriors Co-Chairs Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, and NBA commissioner David Stern in attendance. A report in the San Francisco Chronicle has the details, with the Warriors planning to move to a waterside site in the
I finally figured out the problem with the NBA’s lockout-shortened 2011-12 season … They didn’t shorten it enough. These days, all sports’ regular seasons seem like interminable waits for the real deal, even if they’re cut from 82 games to 66, crammed into 123 days that started on Christmas, fooling the veterans, most of whom apparently stopped working out at Thanksgiving. If it was an inelegant rush to put this mess behind them, you could see the season as a triumph… if you fell